For 15 years, the Percy family's life revolved around the Canberra club.
They couldn't even plan what they were doing for Christmas until the Canberra Cavalry's draw came out.
And those plans inevitably involved setting extra places at the Christmas table for any number of baseball players who might turn up, stranded on the other side of the world from their homes.
It was Matthew Percy's love of baseball that led to him volunteering when the Cavalry entered the then newly reborn Australian Baseball League.
He was happy to do whatever was asked of him before he eventually settled in as the ground announcer at Narrabundah Ballpark.
Little did he know that for the next 15 years he'd be at the ground affectionately known as The Fort for four games every second weekend of summer.
His wife Kim also threw her baseball cap into the volunteer ring to do almost every job in the ballpark, while their son Tom ran the ticket office for a few years.
Plus, for about eight summers, their home became a place for Cavalry players from overseas to stay.
But then that all came to a crashing halt when the Cavalry pulled the pin last year - despite being the reigning Claxton Shield champions.
While Percy and his family got their Christmases back, he hasn't watched a single pitch of the diminished ABL since.
The door's reopened for the Cavalry, or at least a Canberra team, to return to the ABL for the 2027-28 season.
ABL general manager Paul Gonzalez has told The Canberra Times Canberra is a "target market" for the league's plans to return to a six-team competition next year.
But Percy felt it might take more than bringing a Canberra team back to get the fans and volunteers to return.
For 15 summers, the Cavalry was a major part of Percy's life - he even travelled with the team to Taiwan when they won the 2013 Asia Series.
"Over those 15 years I missed two home games," Percy said.
"One was a death in the family and one I had COVID.
"So I can definitely say that I would have been to more home games of the Canberra Cavalry than probably anyone.
"We were just so heavily involved that all the family used to come along and after a while that was our summer.
"We had to wait till the draw came out to see what we're going to do around Christmas and summer holidays.
"[But] the ABL season that was conducted without us, I didn't watch. I didn't watch a single pitch all year."
Gonzalez said Canberra's history made it a natural fit for an expanded league, but said it was too early to say whether any possible return would be as the Cavalry.
Victoria was also identified as a preferred location for an expansion team, with Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth and Sydney the current teams.
ABL teams are privately owned, which is the same model as when the Cavalry bowed out of the league last year.
But the plan is to return to a centrally-owned model - like when the ABL first returned in 2010 and it was jointly owned by Major League Baseball and the Australian Baseball Federation.
"The proposed model identifies Canberra as one of the target markets for the six-team competition," Gonzalez told The Canberra Times.
"The city's history of on-field success, quality facilities and strong connection with its fan base make it a compelling market as we continue to progress the proposed league model.
"It's still too early to comment on team names, branding or the final composition of the competition."
Percy felt it might take some work to get the Cavalry fans back.
Rebuilding volunteer networks and community trust isn't as simple as just putting a Canberra team back into the competition.
Percy said he'd consider returning to the ballpark microphone, but the new club would need to show "enthusiasm and commitment" to "go through all that again".
"Some fans from Canberra probably won't come back," he said.
"Lots will, but some won't come back.
"So it'd be nearly generating a fan base in Canberra, not from scratch, but it'll take some doing, I reckon.
"I'd be wanting 12 months to be able to generate some sponsors, find a manager, find players and have a bit of a strategy and start to get out to the community and go, 'We're coming back'."
